[Slick_Footwork]

Really should be looking at couple of centre backs, given we have 3 seniors and 1 of them is Dawson.

Already 2 out and 1 in. Don't seem to be linked with anyone. This is the worry position for me, especially as both Bartley and Hegazi have had records of bad injuries in the past.

Shame about Dawson training with the kids really. Don't understand why players don't keep acting professional until a suitable bid comes in. Nobody wins in these situations.

[Baggievicar]

My dog was sick on Barmouth beach once. Without seeing Beefy. Just saying.

[Blue Baggie]

I get more disheartened with every player being linked. From where I'm sitting we are buying a
team that will struggle to even stay in the division never mind try for promotion.
Whats happened to our drive and ambition.
I'm not trolling and don't expect anyone to respond - its just how i'm feeling.
Darren needs to raise his sights and spend some cash.

[Slick_Footwork]

I get more disheartened with every player being linked. From where I'm sitting we are buying a
team that will struggle to even stay in the division never mind try for promotion.
Whats happened to our drive and ambition.
I'm not trolling and don't expect anyone to respond - its just how i'm feeling.
Darren needs to raise his sights and spend some cash.

Granted, some of the links are poor but could be paper talk.

But in terms of actual signings, why do you think really think Bartley, Barnes and Johnstone are such bad signings? Serious question and I'm interested in your logic. Especially as you suggest we will struggle to stay in this division with them.

Johnstone 20 clean sheets for Villa last season. Seems very highly rated by Villa fans.

Barnes' stats look eye catching in terms of goals and assists. Based on what he did for Barnsley, he's a 10 goal man from midfield at this level. He's also a player who can pass and link up. Much better than the dead wood we sold to accommodate him, who scored 4 goals for us in his entire stint.

Not too sure about Bartley, as his career on paper does seems a bit stop start. But in the year where he was on loan at Leeds he played a full season and they finished in the playoffs. Also contributed a good amount of goals, which we missed last season without McAuley. I share some reservations about this one, but nothing to suggest he's a bad player at this level.

The lad from Scunthorpe looks like a young one for the future who will be used as cover. I've got no problem with that, because you need a squad of players and it was a joke when we didn't have a single left back at the club for 2 years. That said, he contributed 3 goals from 17 games last season, which is very good for a full back. Yes, he had a lot of loans from Hull but lets remember that Hull were in the Premier League at that point and had the likes of Andy Robertson and Figueroa in front of him, the latter was a favourite of Bruce for years. Note, Harry Maguire was also loaned out by Hull that year, so that shows the lack of faith Steve Bruce had in youth. Might not come off, but £700,000 is a tiny gamble in this day and age.

Stoke fans should be worried, just signed James McClean who was already relegated at this level with Wigan! So glad we managed to sell this waster to a rival!

[BaggieMan]

Barmouth mate  

Remember going in a caravan in a place called Tal-y-Bont whichI think is just north of Barmouth. Nice area and beaches ideal for kids if my memory serves but that was many, many years ago. We now go to Rhos-on-Sea just outside Llandudno a lot and less than two hours easy drive.

[Blue Baggie]

I get more disheartened with every player being linked. From where I'm sitting we are buying a
team that will struggle to even stay in the division never mind try for promotion.
Whats happened to our drive and ambition.
I'm not trolling and don't expect anyone to respond - its just how i'm feeling.
Darren needs to raise his sights and spend some cash.

Granted, some of the links are poor but could be paper talk.

But in terms of actual signings, why do you think really think Bartley, Barnes and Johnstone are such bad signings? Serious question and I'm interested in your logic. Especially as you suggest we will struggle to stay in this division with them.

Johnstone 20 clean sheets for Villa last season. Seems very highly rated by Villa fans.

Barnes' stats look eye catching in terms of goals and assists. Based on what he did for Barnsley, he's a 10 goal man from midfield at this level. He's also a player who can pass and link up. Much better than the dead wood we sold to accommodate him, who scored 4 goals for us in his entire stint.

Not too sure about Bartley, as his career on paper does seems a bit stop start. But in the year where he was on loan at Leeds he played a full season and they finished in the playoffs. Also contributed a good amount of goals, which we missed last season without McAuley. I share some reservations about this one, but nothing to suggest he's a bad player at this level.

The lad from Scunthorpe looks like a young one for the future who will be used as cover. I've got no problem with that, because you need a squad of players and it was a joke when we didn't have a single left back at the club for 2 years. That said, he contributed 3 goals from 17 games last season, which is very good for a full back. Yes, he had a lot of loans from Hull but lets remember that Hull were in the Premier League at that point and had the likes of Andy Robertson and Figueroa in front of him, the latter was a favourite of Bruce for years. Note, Harry Maguire was also loaned out by Hull that year, so that shows the lack of faith Steve Bruce had in youth. Might not come off, but £700,000 is a tiny gamble in this day and age.

Stoke fans should be worried, just signed James McClean who was already relegated at this level with Wigan! So glad we managed to sell this waster to a rival!

FAO SLICK - only

While Johnston maybe a reasonable signings time will tell - I don't believe he is a patch on Foster by the way.
Bartley couldn't get in the Swansea side even when he was fit last season - they sold him to us should tell us something?
Barnes - can't get in the Leicester team and is only a loan? Do we really want him, does he want to play for us. Do they want to sell him - its all pretty short term business.
Townsend - SUFC defender i'm sorry but its another "hope" he steps up signing. 
I think Big D has failed to check the top 6 PL sides youngsters who cant get a game, who we could pick up for 5 - 10 million.
Our DOF hasn't got anyone in ? why is that ? it can only be for financial reasons - Villa got close to promotion last year, but not by getting players in from the lower leagues. They had to splash the cash and bring some good loans in. Exactly the opposite to what we have done. 
As for Stoke - I'm sure they will finish a lot higher then us with or without McClean. A 33 million spend so far shows some ambition.
Now were checking Luton / Peterborough how many cheap hidden gems do we think are out there?
MOST IMPORTANTLY - If we are aiming for promotion how many of these new signings honestly could do a good / solid job in the PL (IMO none of them)
I'm sure Chadli - Dawson - Rondon will leave within the next 10 days and we will be after a couple more hidden gems to replace them. Why would they want to stay? I'm sure they are not impressed with the new signings. Darren needs to get the check book out and spend some money on "PROVEN" quality players. No matter how nice and down to earth he is - he will be measured on results, he's not even giving himself a fighting chance.

[Slick_Footwork]

FAO SLICK - only

While Johnston maybe a reasonable signings time will tell - I don't believe he is a patch on Foster by the way.
Bartley couldn't get in the Swansea side even when he was fit last season - they sold him to us should tell us something?
Barnes - can't get in the Leicester team and is only a loan? Do we really want him, does he want to play for us. Do they want to sell him - its all pretty short term business.
Townsend - SUFC defender i'm sorry but its another "hope" he steps up signing. 
I think Big D has failed to check the top 6 PL sides youngsters who cant get a game, who we could pick up for 5 - 10 million.
Our DOF hasn't got anyone in ? why is that ? it can only be for financial reasons - Villa got close to promotion last year, but not by getting players in from the lower leagues. They had to splash the cash and bring some good loans in. Exactly the opposite to what we have done. 
As for Stoke - I'm sure they will finish a lot higher then us with or without McClean. A 33 million spend so far shows some ambition.
Now were checking Luton / Peterborough how many cheap hidden gems do we think are out there?
MOST IMPORTANTLY - If we are aiming for promotion how many of these new signings honestly could do a good / solid job in the PL (IMO none of them)
I'm sure Chadli - Dawson - Rondon will leave within the next 10 days and we will be after a couple more hidden gems to replace them. Why would they want to stay? I'm sure they are not impressed with the new signings. Darren needs to get the check book out and spend some money on "PROVEN" quality players. No matter how nice and down to earth he is - he will be measured on results, he's not even giving himself a fighting chance.

My points in rebuttal.

Barnes - Yes, he can't get into the Leicester side but Leicester are a much better side than we are. He played in the Championship last season and did very well at 19 years old and is only going to progress. He might be a 'short term signing', but if he contributed to promotion do we care? Our main aim is getting back up.

Bartley - I share your reservations about him for the same reason. But let's not write him off just because he couldn't get into Swansea's team. After all, different managers have different ideas of who is good and bad. By the same token, Chadli never got into our side under Pulis and sometimes didn't even make the bench. IMO this was down to numpty management rather than him being not good enough. After all, he was good enough in the world cup.

Townsend - Have you seen him play then? Or are you saying it's a hope signing just because he's from lower league? I'll reserve judgement until I've seen him play. But, we have an ample first choice left back who has 10 caps for England, so obviously we're not going to spend millions on a back up, especially as we have Brunt who can play there too. In this case, we are obviously trying to uncover a gem, but he's not replacing anyone so no risk involved except the small fee.

As yet the only gamble we have signed has been an addition, rather than replacement. The replacements for first team out goers have been signed from Manchester United and a relegated rival, in Swansea, to the tune of £10,000,000+.

If Rondon, Chadli and Dawson do inevitably go, I'm not sure why you think we'll be looking for 'hidden gems' as replacements? We've spent a fair amount of first team replacements so far. If everything in the press is to believed, Dwight Gayle would be part of the Rondon deal and he scored 23 league goals in Newcastle's promotion season, hardly an unknown. Chadli and Dawson would free up a fair amount of money and while I wouldn't expect all of it to be spent, I don't think we'd be shopping in the bargain basement either. The reality is that we have no idea who we would buy. For months we were linked with Maddison from Peterborough and Roofe from Leeds and then Barnes came in from nowhere.

I have some similar worries to you, that we could sell them all and just buy nobody proven at all. So I'm not completely opposite in feelings. I just the vibe from the £10,000,000 spent so far that our Chairman is pretty serious about going back up.

Obviously we've been screwed by relegated clauses with Rondon and Chadli, so can't stop them if the right bids come in. Really got screwed with this on Evans, who obviously was worth a lot more than we sold him for. That said, we seem to have spent in excess of what we have received on replacements this far out.

[Salopbaggie]

I have some similar worries to you, that we could sell them all and just buy nobody proven at all. So I'm not completely opposite in feelings. I just the vibe from the £10,000,000 spent so far that our Chairman is pretty serious about going back up.

That will be the £10 mil we got for McClean and Evans accounted for then

With the release clauses on several of our top players we are sitting on a knife edge with just a few days left of the window, I just hope the club have a few quality replacements waiting on a phone call otherwise it could be a long season. You would think the legal teams would put a sub-clause into the release clause stating it had to be triggered more that two or three weeks before the close of the window.

[Slick_Footwork]

I have some similar worries to you, that we could sell them all and just buy nobody proven at all. So I'm not completely opposite in feelings. I just the vibe from the £10,000,000 spent so far that our Chairman is pretty serious about going back up.

That will be the £10 mil we got for McClean and Evans accounted for then  

Exactly my point, we have spent what we have received so far, rather than looking for cheap replacements

So if Dawson, Rondon and Chadli go for £45m plus, I doubt we will be shopping in Luton for replacements.

[Blue Baggie]

I have some similar worries to you, that we could sell them all and just buy nobody proven at all. So I'm not completely opposite in feelings. I just the vibe from the £10,000,000 spent so far that our Chairman is pretty serious about going back up.

That will be the £10 mil we got for McClean and Evans accounted for then  

Exactly my point, we have spent what we have received so far, rather than looking for cheap replacements  

So if Dawson, Rondon and Chadli go for £45m plus, I doubt we will be shopping in Luton for replacements.

We have to wait and see how we get on, I have no control over events - my faith is in DM - I'm just very nervous at the moment. If we are in the top 6 at the end of Sept great. give DM a raise, if we are in the bottom 6 give him the push.
Its that simple. No waiting / hanging around like we did with Pulis & Pardew.